The healing powers of medicine and prayer are often media headlines. Not explored is how media itself has shaped popular ideas about religion and health. Prescribing Faith traces the confluence of medicine, media and religion from mid-nineteenth century American culture to the present day. Badaracco examines how media portrays the relationship between religious faith and medicine, showing that the relationship is one fraught with conflict of interest, controversy, and paradox. Prescribing Faith offers valuable insight into deconstructing religion and medicine as shaped by today's media.

醫學和禱告的治愈力量通常是媒體的頭條新聞。 沒有探討的是媒體本身如何塑造有關宗教和健康的流行觀點。 本書追溯醫學，媒體和宗教從十九世紀中葉的美國文化到今天的匯閤。 巴達拉剋研究媒體如何描繪宗教信仰和醫學之間的關係，錶明這種關係充滿瞭利益衝突，爭議和悖論。本書提供瞭解構宗教和醫學由當今的媒體形成寶貴的見解。

The first chapter focuses on Sophia Peabody (1809-1871), one of thousands of nineteenth-century invalids who endured vague, debilitating symptoms.

Claire Hoertz Badaracco (Ph. D. Rutgers) is Full Professor in the College of Communication, Marquette University. She is the editor of "Quoting God: How Media Shape Ideas about Religion and Culture" (Baylor University Press, 2005), "Trading Words: Poetry, Typography, and Illustrated Books in the Modern Literary Economy" (1995) and " American Culture and the Marketplace" (1992).